REINING IN HOLLYWOOD STARS ACTORS PAY BOX-OFFICE PRICE FOR GALLOPING INTO FOLLY.

Byline: GREG HERNANDEZ Staff Writer

Tom Cruise offered less money to produce movies after proselytizing for Scientology; Lindsay Lohan publicly chastised for letting her partying get in the way of moviemaking; Mel Gibson widely disgraced over a drunk-driving bust and an anti-Semitic rant ...

What is happening in Hollywood? Are falling stars actually having to pay a steeper price for their off-screen antics as some of the major studios tighten the budget screws and eliminate jobs?

Walt Disney Studios, set to distribute Gibson's latest film -- the Mayan language action-adventure ``Apocalypto'' -- gave pink slips to 650 employees just last week. Disney officials declined to comment on the Gibson controversy Monday except to say that filming has been completed and the movie, financed by Gibson's Icon Productions, is in postproduction and still is scheduled for release Dec. 8.

``Damage control squads doubtless will rush to his side, but the fallout from his anti-Semitic tirades to the arresting officer will be formidable,'' Peter Bart, editor-in-chief of Daily Variety predicted in a column published in the trade paper Monday.

``The critics will forever kill him. Sectors of the audience will shun his work. His credibility as a filmmaker has been seriously compromised.''

Gibson, once one of the most bankable leading men in movies, has not appeared in a film since 2003's ``The Singing Detective.'' His most recent blockbuster as an actor was ``Signs'' four years ago.

``It's too soon to tell what impact this will have on Gibson's box office,'' said Morris Reid, managing director of the Washington, D.C.-based brand agency Westin Rinehart. ``The real question is how the industry, the actual decision makers, will feel about this. There are a lot of Jewish folks involved in the industry, and people may take a pass on him for their own personal reasons.''

With Gibson financing, writing and directing his own films these days, he is not as dependent upon the industry to get his projects off the ground. But there remains the question of whether the public will still flock to his movies as audiences did to the Gibson-directed ``The Passion of the Christ'' two years ago.

Allegations of anti-Semitic leanings first plagued Gibson in 2004 when he was promoting ``Passion'' and he was forced to distance himself from the beliefs of his conservative Catholic father, who has questioned whether the Holocaust occurred.

Gibson issued a statement a day after his arrest in Malibu last Friday admitting he ``acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested and said things I do not believe to be true and which are despicable.''

He added: ``I disgraced myself and my family with my behavior, and for that I am truly sorry. I have battled with the disease of alcoholism for all of my adult life and profoundly regret my horrific relapse.''

With two Oscars for directing and producing 1995's ``Braveheart,'' the ``Lethal Weapon'' and ``Mad Max'' franchises, and with such hits as ``The Patriot'' and ``What Women Want,'' Gibson has long been writing his own ticket in the movie business.

``He's kind of untouchable because he has more money than Midas and can make any kind of movie he wants to make,'' said James Ullmer, founder of The Ullmer Scale, which measures the star power of actors and directors.

``He's never going to keep his mouth shut, and he's got enormous self-sustaining power. But it's not like he'll never need Hollywood again. He will still need distributors. And as soon as he comes out with another multimillion film, Hollywood won't care. Money trumps ethics.''

Cruise and Lohan are both coming off box-office disappointments.

While Gibson has not released a movie in 2006, Cruise's highly anticipated ``Mission Impossible: III'' earned far less domestically than the franchise's first two installments, and Lohan's most recent star vehicle, ``Just My Luck,'' stalled out at $17 million.

Lohan was blasted last week by Morgan Creek Productions CEO James G. Robinson for what he termed unprofessional behavior that caused delays in the shooting of the film ``Georgia Rule.'' Representatives of the young actress said she missed work due to dehydration, while Robinson blamed it on her partying.

Cruise is reportedly being offered far less money to extend his production deal with Paramount Pictures after ``MI: III'' seriously underperformed at the domestic box office. Many attributed that to the serious beating his off-screen image has been taking the past 16 months or so. The production deal expired Monday and talks are continuing, the studio confirmed.

``Bad behavior in Hollywood is still something that is better tolerated when you are an A-list star, but people won't forget if it goes on for too long,'' Ullmer said. ``I think Hollywood is getting a little more realistic about how it is treating its stars. They know they are being paid sometimes far too much, an enormous amount of money. They should be held to the same standards of any workers who need to do their job.''

According to Market Evaluations Inc., the company that compiles ``Q-scores'' of celebrities -- measuring recognizability as well as positive and negative appeal -- Gibson and Cruise are among the most recognized stars with a familiarity level of more than 90 percent. Gibson's popularity took a hit last summer but was rebounding at the time of his arrest.

``We're in the field right now, so we are going to have results that probably reflect (the arrest),'' said Henry Schaffer, executive vice president of Marketing Evaluations. ``He could take a big hit.''

Although Gibson released a statement, Schaffer said the best ``image rehab'' would be to give a nationally televised interview at some point.

``If he goes on `The Tonight Show' or (David) Letterman (show) and comes across as being believable, it's going to help,'' Schaffer said. ``But if he isn't perceived as being sincere in the remarks, it would hurt even more.''

Cruise appears to still be unforgiven for publicly criticizing Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants while suffering from postpartum depression. He also turned people off when he jumped onto a sofa on ``The Oprah Winfrey Show'' to proclaim his love for actress Katie Holmes, who recently gave birth to their daughter.

``He started to show some softening in his positive appeal in March 2005, and it has carried through this March,'' Schaffer said. ``The positive appeal ... dropped and went over to the other side of the scale, resulting in a high negative Q-score.''

Lohan, 20, is not nearly as well known as Gibson and Cruise, but she is already showing signs of being a somewhat polarizing personality, with her negative scores creeping up in the past year.

``She's creating as much positive growth as negative growth, which could be a good or bad thing,'' Schaffer said. ``She is stirring more emotions out there with consumers.''

Off-screen antics aside, Lohan is considered one of the most talented young actresses of her generation. She co-starred with Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, among others, in the Robert Altman-directed ``A Prairie Home Companion'' released in June, and her current film co-stars Jane Fonda and Felicity Huffman.

``I think Hollywood will cut her a little slack because she's 20,'' said Ullmer. ``But one of the worst things you can do in the movie business is not show up on the set for a whole day. The bonders and the financiers cringe at bad behavior. You put a lot of other things at risk, and it incites the studio's anger.''

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com

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(1 -- color) no caption (GIBSON)

(2 -- color) LOHAN

(3 -- color) CRUISE